Jean Capart, Neferirtenef et les mastabas perdus d’Auguste Mariette

Abstract

Since 1906, the funerary chapel of Neferirtenef (E.02465) is one the centrepieces of the Old Kingdom section at the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels (RMAH). Although the circumstances of its acquisition and its clearing at North Saqqara by Jean Capart during the Winter of 1905-1906 are well known, the exact location of the mastaba to which it belonged –a monument originally discovered by Auguste Mariette in the middle of the 19th century– remained obscure for a long time. The analysis of recently found written and photographic archives at the RMAH, studied within the scope of the research project SURA (2020-2023), helped not only to position the mastaba of Neferirtenef on the map of Saqqara, but also to identify four other mastabas found by Mariette, that were also re-exposed during Capart’s 1905-1906 operation.